


Everything's actually okay for once

by stillbored516



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-02-23 14:11:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13191738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillbored516/pseuds/stillbored516





	1. Chapter 1

Karkat sat with his back to the wall, staring at his arm in wonder while the patterns slowly made their way up. This world that they lived in was wonderful. He got to watch the world turn, and now he was watching his soulmate’s artwork grow ever further up his arm. Wait, what’s this? Milk? The word milk. The word milk had appeared on his hand, right below the masterpiece on his forearm. Well, at least then he would remember that he was out of milk too. 

Karkat had always imagined his soulmate as the artistic, shy girl. She would be so beautiful, and she would be just the right weight and she wouldn’t need to worry about it. If she did? He would help her see that she was fine. 

           He realized that if he wanted to get to school on time, then he would have to get up, like, now. Quickly, he threw on one of his shirts, some black sweatpants, and his backpack. He walked out the door, not really caring what he looked like, hence the sweatpants. He saw his bus down the street and began to run.

He made it on the bus and sat down near the front. He pulled out his phone and earbuds and turned on his playlist. “Another Way Out” by Hollywood Undead came on. He started to hum along, he stared out of the window until he got to school. As he climbed off the bus, he nearly fell out the door, but thank god for whoever thought it was a good idea to place a bar to hold near the stairs. He went into his first period class and looked to the front. There was a name on the board, Mr. something, probably a substitute. He couldn’t care less.

After a couple of long periods, Karkat was famished, as he had forgotten to eat breakfast in his hurry, much like everyday. He stood in line to get the dreaded school lunch. Mini corn dogs aren’t that bad, so he grabbed two plates. He was a growing male after all. He sat at his normal table, which he had chosen for the sole reason that nobody sat there, and on the rare occasion they did, it was at the far end of the table. That is, until someone sat directly across from him. Karkat looked up. Wow. 

The male sitting across from him was beautiful. His bleached blond hair contrasted with his black sunglasses, and his pale skin almost glowed under the fluorescent lights. His hands were under the table, but Karkat could see from the arm movements that he was fidgeting. 

“What the fuck do you want,” Karkat muttered, phrasing it as a statement.

Though it wasn’t clear, Karkat could see the blonde blink behind his - admittedly pretty sexy - sunglasses. “Rude.”

“Fucking deal with it,” Karkat scoffed.

The male’s hand went to run through his mop of hair. “How are you?”

“I’m fucking great,” Karkat was leaning forward slightly, his voice picking up volume. He didn’t like talking.

“That’s good,” the boy said, putting his hand on the table and drumming his fingers against it.

“What the fuck do you want,” Karkat was getting annoyed.

“Well, it would appear that we’re soulmates,” with this, the male’s ears started turning red and he looked down.

“OH FUCK NO,” Karkat yelled. He flipped his corn dogs in the male’s face and tripped out of the room. The male just sat there, his eyes watering a little bit.

Karkat stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, water dripping down his face. He yanked up his sleeve, thrusting it under the water, he started to scrub, hard. The ink wasn’t coming off!

“NO,” Karkat couldn’t have a male for his soulmate, he couldn’t! It’s not right!


	2. Chapter 2

 

That night, Karkat was laying down. Laying there and thinking. He couldn’t, he just couldn’t have a male for his soulmate, right? He’s a male, so he had to have a female for a soulmate.

_ Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.  _ What was he thinking, of course it would be bad! He continued to debate with himself, his thoughts eventually drifting away as he fell asleep.

_ Karkat was sitting in bed. This wasn’t his bed though, it was much too big and soft to be his cheap, crappy bed. He lived on his own, so he had to pay for everything himself. Something beside him moved, but for some reason, he didn’t freak out, he just sighed and layed back down with a smile on his face. He closed his eyes, breathing in and out slowly.  _

_ The thing that moved beside him sat up. It’s the male, and Karkat couldn’t be happier. _

Then, he woke up.

“WHAT THE FUCK,” he cried out. He hoped that he didn’t really just dream that, hoped that he didn’t want that. He flung his body sideways off of his bed.

“Oof,” he landed on his back. He looked at the clock, he figured that he woke up early for once, 5:47, A.M. He figured that, since he didn’t take a shower the night before, he might as well.

He walked in the bathroom with his towel slung on his arm. Stripping down, Karkat caught a glimpse of something new written on his arm. The scrawl was sloppy but legible, ‘What’s wrong?’ Oh hell no, he was  _ not  _ doing that so early in the morning. Knowing that scrubbing wouldn’t help, he hopped in the shower, determined not to look at it. 

The water hit his back, and he scrubbed at his face with a sigh. He didn’t want to deal with this today, but as more writing started to fade onto his arm, it was apparent that he wasn’t going to avoid this particular battle. Forcing back a groan, he glanced down at his arm again.  _ ‘You can tell me if something’s wrong, yeah? I’m sorry if I upset you… ’  _ Karkat dug his nails into the flesh, hoping the man on the other end could feel the pain. After a few seconds of the tear-wrenching agony, he released his arm. Tears flowed down his face along with shower water, and Karkat sunk to the floor and buried his head in his arms.

After the shower, Karkat dried his top half, and immediately put on a dry shirt. Then, he dried his bottom half and put on a clean pair of sweatpants. It was only around 6:30, so he decided that he should eat breakfast, for once. Cereal sounded good, right? Nope, he didn’t have any cereal. Maybe just a cup of milk, he could manage that, right? Yes, yes he could.

Karkat got to school and hid in his first period until the bell rang for him to actually be in class, at least the teacher was nice. He had to hide because he was not sure if he would be able to refrain from punching the kid that was supposedly his soulmate. 

When lunch came around, Karkat quickly grabbed a lunch tray and almost ran to his next period’s room.  Luckily for him, the teacher agreed to let him eat in there, “as long as this doesn’t become an everyday thing.” 

The bell for the last period to end rang and Karkat walked out of class, going towards the bus station, then he saw a mop of bleached blond hair over to his right. He could barely see over everybody’s heads, since he was ‘fun sized’, but the other male was tall enough that Karkat didn’t have much of an angle where he couldn’t see the male.

Unfortunately for Karkat, if you could see someone, that usually means you could be seen, and he had just been spotted. The male took long strides, and was next to him in a couple seconds. “So,” the male awkwardly said, “what was up with yesterday, huh?”

“FUCK OFF,” Karkat started walking away.

“Dude, no. You can’t get rid of me that easily, what’s up,” the male followed.

“ _ I SAID  _ FUCK OFF,” he went onto his bus, flashing his bus pass at the driver.

The male stood outside of the bus, looking at who knows what due to his shades that he’s still wearing, with a slight frown on his face.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Karkat got home and flopped on his bed. Deep breaths, he could do this. In and out. Why him? Why did his life have to get so complicated? It would have been be so much easier if he just found a girl. Although, homophobia is not a good thing, so, he could learn to deal with it, right? Even if he was soulmates with that dude, that didn’t mean he had to love him, right? He could just be best friends. Plus, it would be cool to be able to communicate with your friend without technology, just the magic that was soulmate marking.

Karkat grabbed a marker and headed into the bathroom. Taking off his shirt, he realized that the art and words that had previously been on his arm were gone. He didn’t think too much of that though. Grabbing his hand, he figured that, if this dude still wanted to talk, this was the best way to get to him, since he didn’t have his number.

He wrote on his arm, Karkat asked if the fucker still wanted to talk and looked up. He felt a tingling in his arm, that, until then, he didn't notice, he looked back down. “Of course,” was the reply.

Well, that was awkward. Karkat had literally yelled at this guy less than an hour ago, he didn't know him, and they were supposed to be soulmates. So much awkward in one. “So, how are you,” Karkat wrote.

“Not bad, what about you,” the male replied.

“NOT BAD MYSELF,” Karkat mentally face palmed, so awkward. After this, a phone number showed up along Karkats bicep along with a ‘text me, I’m running out of room here’, and it was true, there was little to no more room on either of his arms. He pulled out his grey phone and opened up his texting app. He entered in the number, said hi and hit send.

He only had to wait a few seconds before the reply came, “Hi.”

“HELLO,” Karkat liked yelling when he typed, it was sort of his thing.

“Hello,” after this, the male and Karkat both decided that they were done saying any version of hello. 

“WHAT NOW,” Karkat leaned on his wall, that turned out to be in the wrong place, and he fell over onto his face in the pillows.

“Well, you didn’t do it earlier, so you have to swoon now,” the male suggested.

“FUCK NO,” Karkat made a face at that.

“Well, that’s just rude,” The male replied.

Karkat decided he was done with this male’s shit and silenced his phone to get some food. In the kitchen, he remembered why he didn’t eat breakfast that morning, he had little to no actual food. He didn’t even have any ramen, which was never acceptable. He would have to go grocery shopping. That meant that he had to go out to eat, or just not eat dinner. He opted for not eating dinner.


	4. Chapter 4

 

That night, Karkat was thinking. Thinking of that male. He was cute, there was no doubt about that, but he wasn’t gay! Maybe there was a possibility that there is such thing as a best friend soulmate. Maybe there was someone else that drew exactly like the male. Maybe. Just maybe.

He closed his eyes, but he couldn’t sleep. Karkat, the male that was in denial. Then, trying to remember the male’s name, he realized that he never got it. He pulls out his phone, texting the male. “HEY FUCKER, WHAT’S YOUR NAME?” He had to wait a few minutes for a response.

“Dave, what about you,” the male questioned.

Karkat didn’t want to tell Dave his name, but it would be rude of him not to. “KARKAT,” he said.

“Interesting name,” and his wasn’t? Dave. Dave was such a human name. Oh well, he had to get used to it if he wanted to be best friends with the dude.

“I COULD SAY THE SAME THING TO YOU,” the troll retorted.

“Why do you type in all caps, dude,” Dave sounded curious.

“BECAUSE,” Karkat was being difficult, but he didn’t care.

“Ok, how are you,” Dave questioned.

“FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC DAVE! HOW ARE YOU?” Karkat was getting used to what the humans called yelling, he used it frequently, more often than he would have liked to. He wanted to be calm sometimes, like now, but he was too freaked out at the notion of having a male for a soulmate to be calm. 

“I’m great,” he said, “Hey, umm…”

“WHAT,” Karkat was not very patient, and this Dave guy, was getting on his nerves. Somehow though, he didn’t find it unpleasant. He almost found it enjoyable talking with Dave.

“Would you like to come over to play some video games sometime?” There it was, the invitation. Karkat didn’t want to go, but somehow he found his fingers typing yes without his consent.

“Sweet! When are you free,” Dave sounded excited.

“I NEVER FUCKING HAVE ANYTHING PLANNED,” Karkat said. Sometimes he did have stuff going on, but it wasn’t frequent enough to warrant telling Dave that.

“Then how does half an hour sound to you,” Dave planned.

“OK,” Karkat was excited too, although he refused to admit it.


	5. Chapter 5

 

Karkat walked up to the door of the strange house. He looked the house up and down and realized that it was not like the other houses on the street, it was taller, had more windows and he could see an elevator through the glass front door. He had no way of telling if it was a normal human house compared to the rest of the world. He walked up to the door, already second guessing himself. He rang the doorbell anyway.

He waited a few minutes and just as he turned to leave, the door opened. “Sorry dude, I had to take the elevator down here, we’re on the top floor. Follow me,” with that, the male turned around and started towards the elevator.

Karkat followed and asked, “WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO PLAY?”

“I thought Mario Kart would be fun, even though I am so going to whoop your ass,” was that a challenge? Even though Karkat didn’t know what ‘Mario Kart’ was, he was still going to beat Dave, and he wasn’t about to let him know that he didn’t know what it was.

“CHALLENGE ACCEPTED,” he was going to win.

They walked out of the elevator on the top floor into a hallway. At the very end of the hallway, Dave pulled out a key. They walked into the room, Dave asking, “Do you want anything to eat or drink?”

Karkat wasn’t craving anything, so he said no. Dave shrugged and plopped down on the couch. He grabbed the remote to turn on the T.V. and Karkat sat too, at the opposite end of the couch. He didn’t want to sit too close. Dave grabbed two wii remotes and handed one to Karkat. They turned on the game and started. 

Half an hour later, Dave had beaten every game with first or second place, while Karkat had gotten around 6th place each time. Dave leaned back in to the couch and sighed, “Have you accepted your defeat yet?”

“FUCK YOU DAVE,” Karkat yelled. He had been shouting profanities the whole game and wasn’t about to stop.

“I’ll take that as a no then,” Dave said while standing up, “Do you want anything now?”

“NO,” he still wasn’t craving anything.

“What do you want to do now? Do you want to keep playing, or what,” Dave stood to stretch.

“I DON’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK WHAT WE DO,” Karkat remained sitting. 

“So you want to stay,” Dave smirked at that.

“I DON’T CARE,” Karkat could feel his ears turn hot.

“Ok, whatever you say dude,” he was still smirking.

“I’LL FUCKING LEAVE IF YOU WANT ME TO,” Karkat stood up to stretch as well.

“NO!” Dave looked anxious through his shades, “I mean, you can stay, if you want.”

“I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO,” He wasn’t lying this time.

Looking relieved, Karkat could also see Dave relax a little when he said “What do you want to do then?”

_ You,  _ thought Karkat. His eyes widened and he cringed at the thought, where had that come from? 

“Dude, what’s with the face,” Dave looked confused, even with his glasses on. Why was he still wearing those? They were in a dark room, he definitely didn’t need them.

Ignoring the question, Karkat asked “WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS WEARING THOSE SHADES?”  
“Because they’re eye-ronic,” Dave’s pun left Karkat cringing, again.

Still cringing, Karkat said “FUCK YOU AND YOUR PUNS DAVE. I’M LEAVING.”

“What, why,” Dave questioned.

“BECAUSE I FUCKING CAN, THAT’S WHY,” Karkat walked towards the door. 

He reached the door, turned back, and almost gasped. Dave was right behind him, why hadn’t he heard his footsteps? Dave reached his arms out and Karkat raised one black eyebrow, what was Dave doing? With a sigh, Dave stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Karkat. He tensed at the unexpected contact.

Releasing Karkat, Dave informs him, “It’s called a hug.”

“Oh,” Karkat murmurs, “ok.” He felt his ears burn but didn’t know why. He could also see Dave’s cheeks turn red. Karkat glanced away and pushed Dave off of him, he didn’t like any unnecessary contact with anybody, let alone Dave. He turned to the door and opened it, not expecting the cold on the cold on the other side. He looked to the sky, it was dark! Apparently he had been at Dave’s house for hours.

He stepped into the dark without so much as a goodbye.


	6. Chapter 6

Friday, one of Karkat’s lease favourite, or most favourite, he can’t decide which, days. It honestly could go either way. It would be his most favourite because school got out on Fridays, and his lease because it means he would be alone for the next two days as the weekend passed its course.

Karkat sulked into the school building, going to first period. Yay. He was almost to his class when he saw that mop of hair. For some reason, he wanted to go say hi to Dave, “DAVE!”

“Huh,” Dave turned around, “Oh, Karkat!”

“HI,” Karkat didn’t know why he was talking to Dave, he was supposed to be avoiding all unnecessary contact with the male.

Dave started walking toward him, “What’s up?”

“THE SKY, I THOUGHT YOU KNEW THAT,” Karkat was confused, Dave had been on this planet longer than he had, shouldn’t he know that?

Dave laughed, “It’s a form of greeting, man. It means how are you.”

“Oh,” now Karkat was the stupid one, “I’M GOOD, WHAT IS UP?”

Dave was almost hunched over from laughing so hard, “I’m great! Can I walk you inside?”

“WHY NOT,” said Karkat.

They walked away from they were standing, with Karkat almost falling over. Luckily for him, Dave didn’t see anything. Or, at least, he didn’t show any signs of reaction. They got inside and they both realized that they had to go down different hallways and they split to go their separate ways.

Lunch time came around without incident. (Except for Karkat nearly falling over, _again_.) He was still thinking about Dave. That shaggy hair and almost unnoticeable mustache that everyone had, but for some reason, Karkat couldn’t stop thinking about Dave’s. It looked so soft!

He sat at his usual table with two trays of mini corn dogs, again. Luckily for him, they had them about once or twice a week. He was staring at his second plate, wondering how in the hell he was going to eat that, he wasn’t hungry anymore, when, he heard someone sit across from him. He looks up and sees those almost opaque, black, shades. Then he noticed the lack of food. The male had a carton of apple juice and nothing else.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR FOOD,” Karkat was, worried? Was that the word? No, he couldn’t be worried about someone that he most definitely did not care about. He had to have been confused. Yes, that was it.

Dave’s face did nothing when he said, “I don’t have any.”

“WHY THE FUCK DON’T YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING FOOD,” Karkat was even more ‘confused.’

“No reason,” Dave raised one eyebrow in opposition.

Karkat shoved his extra plate at Dave, “EAT!”

“No, this is your food, you need to eat more than I do, shorty,” Dave said, lowering his eyebrow.

“I ALREADY ATE. EAT,” Karkat was getting worked up. Why? We may never know.

“Fine, fine. I’ll eat your stupid corn dogs,” Dave relented. Karkat could hear a faint rumbling coming from Dave’s direction, but decided not to pursue it. It was probably coming from outside anyway.

They sat in silence for the rest of lunch, until the bell rang to signal them to go to their last class of the day.


	7. Chapter 7

  
  
  


Karkat was sitt ing in his last class of the day, doing absolutely nothing. Well, that’s a lie. He was thinking about stuff, mainly about Dave. What was going on in his brain, he thought that he was supposed to hate Dave, why was he spending all of his time thinking about him? Right now he was thinking about Dave’s lack of lunch. Food was good for humans, right? So why didn’t Dave have lunch today?

At least this class was easy, so he could get away with daydreaming. Karkat didn’t realize it yet, but it was almost time to go. Everyone else started packing up while Karkat was sitting there, head on his desk, earbuds in. The bell rings and he almost noticed it, but he was too deep in thought to care.

Dave, the male that could send Karkat Vantas head over heels in love. But he wasn’t in love! He couldn’t be! But Dave was so cute, and so nice too. He was the first person to go up to Karkat and actually try and talk with him since he had moved here last year. 

Karkat finally lifts his head and, fuck. Everyone was gone. He rushed to shove his stuff into his backpack, running out the door to see if he missed the bus. He did. Yay. 

“FUCK,” Karkat said, running his hands through his messy hair. He turned around and kicked the wall, hard.

“FUUUUCK,” he spun in a circle, fists balled in his hair.

“That’s a sight I’d like to see more often,” that sounded like Dave.

When Karkat turned around, he saw Dave leaning against the brick wall, smirking. 

“WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN,” Karkat raised a fuzzy, black eyebrow, a habit he’d picked up living around the humans.

Daves smirk grew, “Nothing, it doesn’t matter.”

“TELL ME, YOU FUCKER,” Karkat’s right eye was twitching now.

“Nope,” Dave was still leaning with one shoulder on the wall.

Karkat nearly screamed, but instead let out a growl of frustration.

“Sexy,” Dave was getting on Karkat’s nerves.

Karkat thought about pouncing on Dave. Should he? Maybe.

He was going to do it. He walked closer to Dave, crouching, wiggling his butt a little bit.

“The fu-,” Dave was on the ground, with Karkat on top of him.

Karkat smirked, but before he could say anything, Dave interrupted him with a, “So, you’re a top then.”

“YES,” Karkat said, “I AM ON TOP OF YOU. YOU IDIOT.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Dave sighed.

Karkat was confused, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEN?”

“Nothing,” Dave’s face remained emotionless, “it doesn’t matter.” He cuts Karkat off from talking again by saying, “I’m guessing that you don’t have a ride home?”

“NO. NO I DO NOT,” Karkat was frustrated with himself for missing the bus and he was taking it out on Dave. The fact that he supposedly hated Dave didn’t make him be any nicer.

Dave went to reach into his pocket and ended up with his hand on Karkat’s thigh.

“Umm. Do you think you can get off of me so I can get my keys,” Dave looked up at Karkat through his black shades.

Karkat begrudgingly got off of Dave. He rolled to the side, instead of standing up like any civilized person would do. Dave stood up. He pulled the keys out of his pocket and pressed one of the buttons on it and a VW Beetle beeped a few meters away.

“It’s for the irony,” Dave said.

“I DON’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK YOU ASSHOLE,” Karkat could probably be heard across the parking lot.

“Says the one yelling at the person who just offered them a ride,” Dave maintained his composure.

Karkat glared at Dave, but said nothing more while the both of them hopped in the small car.


End file.
